Sentencing delayed for former Coatesville detective

Staff photo by Vinny Tennis
In this file photo, Gerald Pawling, right, with his attorney Daniel Bush arrive at district court in Caln for his arraignment on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013. Pawling’s sentencing hearing scheduled for Tuesday was delayed.

WEST CHESTER — The scheduled sentencing hearing for former Coatesville police Detective Gerald Pawling set for Tuesday has been postponed until next month.

The proceeding, which would have taken place in Common Pleas Court Judge David Bortner’s courtroom, was delayed because the prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza, is in trial in another judge’s courtroom.

The sentencing is now scheduled to take place on July 30.

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In April, Pawling pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars from a police union fund and from the city’s evidence room, spending the money on personal items. He also acknowledged stealing funds from a police youth charity and for filing a false insurance claim for camera equipment that he had stolen from the police department.

Pawling, 43, of Caln pleaded guilty to charges of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, forgery, access device fraud, tampering with public records, tampering with public evidence and insurance fraud. Overall, there were 113 counts, both felonies and misdemeanors, against the decorated retired police officer set forth in the guilty plea he signed, and which Bortner accepted.

Pawling, who served on the city police force for 17 years as both a patrol officer and criminal investigator, was arrested in August after county detectives learned he had stolen money from the Coatesville Police Benevolent Association, or CPBA, which handled contract negotiations and other labor union affairs for the city officers. He was subsequently charged in January with credit card fraud involving the union’s accounts and thefts from the city police evidence room and the Coatesville Police Athletic League in January. Finally, in March he was charged with more thefts from the evidence room and insurance fraud.

According to the facts that Barraza presented to Bortner, Pawling was treasurer of the CPBA from January 2009 to June 2012, and had access to its two bank accounts. During that period, he wrote 51 checks made out to himself and his wife for between $330 and $3,400, sometimes forging the names of other CPBA officials including Audette and Rita Shesko.

The total of those thefts amounted to $46,509.

He also opened a credit card account with Staples in the name of the CPBA, although he did not have permission to do so, and listed the account address as his own home. With that credit card, he made purchases of electronic equipment for himself and his family totaling $10,445. He used the CPBA funds in its two bank accounts to pay for the purchases, writing checks worth $7,605.

In addition, in May and June of 2011, Barraza said, Pawling used his access to the PAL bank accounts to pay for $2,745 worth of paving work for the driveway at his Caln home. He had no permission to do so.

The charges involving theft and evidence tampering involving the city police department stemmed from the search of his home in July, when police found empty evidence room envelopes in his bedroom, envelopes that had been removed from the department without permission. One envelope should have contained $5,500, and the second $307.

Pawling was the detective in charge of the evidence room from 2001 to his retirement, and would have had access to the envelopes there.

Also, during an inventory of the evidence room, Campbell found an open evidence envelope that was supposed to contain $5,230, but was missing $1,640. The bag containing the money had two of Pawling’s fingerprints, even though there was no reason for him to have opened the envelope.

A subsequent search of Pawling’s home turned up seven more evidence envelopes, all empty with the money they were supposed to have contained, between $114 and $1,251.21, missing.

Finally, Barraza told Bortner of an insurance claim that Pawling filed in April 2009 for a Nikon camera lens he said had been stolen from his car. The lens, for which he received $1,875, belonged to the city police and was valued at $899.

In terms of a sentence, Bortner will have the option of either giving Pawling prison time or a probationary sentence, or some combination of the two. Because Pawling has no prior criminal record, the guidelines for most of the charges carry sentences between probation and nine months in jail.

At the time of his plea, defense attorney Daniel Bush of the West Chester law firm of Lamb McErlane asked the judge to consider his client’s character in anticipation of the sentencing. Although he did not minimize or seek to excuse his client’s “bad acts,” Bush went through a list of positive things that Pawling had been responsible for in his years as a city police officer.

More than that, Pawling, a father of five, worked outside the department with youth football and baseball leagues, and helped train other police officers throughout the county.

“He touched numerous young people’s lives in a very positive way,” the defense attorney said.